1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to programmable logic devices, and in particular, to a method of configuring a field programmable gate array in which configurable logic blocks and programmable interconnect are reconfigured dynamically.
2. Description of the Related Art
A programmable logic device, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), is a well known type of integrated circuit and is of wide applicability due to the flexibility provided by its reprogrammable nature. An FPGA typically includes an array of configurable logic blocks (CLBs), wherein each CLB is individually configured to perform any one of a number of different logic functions specified by a user (a circuit designer). A programmable interconnect routes signals between the CLBs and the input/output blocks (IOBo) (which interface between the CLBs and the device package pins) according to the desired user circuit design. The FPGA also includes configuration memory cells which are coupled to the CLBs to specify the function to be performed by each CLB, as well as to the programmable interconnect to specify the coupling of the CLBs and IOBs. The FPGA may also include data storage memory cells accessible by a user during operation of the FPGA. However, unless specified otherwise, as used herein, the term "memory cells" refers to the configuration memory cells. The "1996 Programmable Logic Data Book", published by Xilinx, Inc., pages 4-291 to 4-302, describes these configuration memory cells and an exemplary FPGA structure in greater detail, and is incorporated by reference herein.
One approach available in the prior art to increase the complexity and size of logic circuits has been coupling multiple FPGAs by external connections. However, due to the limited number of input/output connections, i.e. pins, provided on the FPGAs, not all circuits can be implemented using this approach. Moreover, using more than one FPGA undesirably increases cost and board space to implement the user circuit design. Another known approach has been increasing the number of CLBs and interconnect resources in the FPGA. However, for any given semiconductor fabrication technology, there are practical limitations to the number of CLBs and interconnect that can be fabricated on an integrated circuit. Thus, there continues to be a need to increase CLB densities for FPGAs.
Reconfiguring an FPGA to perform different logic functions at different times is known in the art. However, this reconfiguration typically requires the step of reloading a configuration bit stream for each reconfiguration. Moreover, reconfiguration of a prior art FPGA generally requires suspending the implementation of the logic functions, saving the current state of the logic functions in a device external to the FPGA, reloading the entire array of memory cells, and inputting the states of the logic functions which have been saved off-chip along with any other needed inputs. Each of these steps requires a significant amount of time, thereby rendering reconfiguration impractical for implementing typical circuits.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,545, incorporated herein by reference, discloses an FPGA including CLBs having both combinational and sequential logic elements, an interconnect structure for interconnecting the CLBs, and a plurality of programmable logic elements for dynamically reconfiguring the CLBs and the interconnect structure. At least one programmable logic element includes a plurality of memory cells for configuring the combinational element and at least one programmable logic element includes a plurality of memory cells for configuring the sequential logic element. A plurality of intermediate states of the CLBs and the interconnect structure are stored. In this manner, a CLB can access values calculated by CLBs (other CLBs or itself) in other configurations.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,545 teaches three types FPGA data (implying three types of memory or storage): configuration data, user data, and state data. Configuration data determines the configuration of the logic blocks or interconnect when the data is provided to those logic blocks or interconnect. User data is data typically generated by the user logic and stored/retrieved in memory that could otherwise be used for configuration data storage. State data is data defining the logical values of nodes in user logic at any specific time. Typically, state data is stored if the values at the nodes are needed at a later time. The term "state" is used to refer to either all of the node values at a particular time, or a subset of those values. For simplicity, user data and state data are referred to herein as "user data."
The FPGA switches between configurations (also called memory planes) by transferring bits, i.e. of configuration data and user data, from the inactive storage to the active storage, thereby allowing the FPGA to function in one of N configurations, wherein N is equal to the maximum number of memory cells assigned to each programmable point. In this manner, an FPGA with a number M of actual CLBs functions as if it includes M times N effective CLBs. Thus, assuming eight configurations, the FPGA implements eight times the amount of logic that it actually contains by including the additional configuration memory. By using this type of reconfiguration, the CLBs are reused dynamically, thereby reducing the number of physical CLBs needed to implement a given number of logic functions in a particular user's circuit design by the factor of the number of configurations.
It is therefore a principal object of the present invention to provide a method for configuring memory planes in a dynamically reconfigurable FPGA for carrying out extremely fast computations.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method to utilize on-chip memory locations to store virtual instructions for configuration data to perform a computation in the FPGA.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method for carrying out computations in an FPGA without using external memory by employing virtual instructions to cause data stored on a memory plane of each tile of the FPGA to be copied to tile-local memory elements.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a method for providing a sequence of virtual instructions stored in the memory planes of a dynamically configured FPGA and utilizing the FPGA routing programmability to translate data stored in a first pattern of FPGA storage elements into data stored in a second pattern of FPGA storage elements.